The documentary genre has recently gone through challenging times as the 21st century and its culture are characterised as both postmodern and “post-documentary”. This means that an attitude towards knowledge has evolved that rejects modernity’s belief in universal truth and its privileging of techno-scientific modes of discovery – such as documentary film. As a result viewers treat grand narratives about political ideology in media with suspicion. Consequently, questions arise around how political documentaries are able to voice social critique and bring about change in this new context without getting accused of outright manipulation?
In order to answer these questions, this work analyses Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014) about the 1965 killings in Indonesia. Oppenheimer employs an innovative approach as never before have mass murderers been recorded in the making of a film about their crimes (TAoK), nor has there ever been a film where a victim confronts the perpetrators while the perpetrators are still in power (TLoS). This work looks at the potential for feelings of closeness with the perpetrators and victims resulting from the complementary film documents. The findings show that Oppenheimer avoids ideological claims by inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the lives of the protagonists. Viewers shall draw individual conclusions that are stimulated by a heightened perceptual experience of the filmic world.
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Film Descriptions and Global Resonance
3.0 The Taxonomy of Modes
3.1 Cursory overview of the Main Documentary Modes
3.2 TAoK and TLoS classified as Performative Documentaries
3.3 The Performative Mode and Fiction
4.0 Empathy, Identification and Appraisal in Films
4.1 The Outline of a Model
4.2 Methodical Procedure/ Approach
5.0 Developing Schemata for an Intended Reception
5.1 Schemata for an Intended Reception of TAoK
5.2 Schemata for an Intended Reception of TLoS
6.0 Getting Access to the Film Protagonists
6.1 Getting an understanding of the Perpetrators in TAoK
6.2 Getting an understanding of the Perpetrators in TLoS
6.3 Getting an understanding of the Victims in TLoS
7.0 The films’ goals and conflicts
7.1 Pointing Viewers towards the Concealed Remorse in TAoK
7.2 Pointing viewers towards the Concealed Remorse in TLoS
8.0 Preparing the ground for confrontations
8.1 Decreasing fear in TAoK
8.2 Enforcing fear in TLoS
8.3 Involvement in the Killings Explained in TAoK
8.4 Individualisation versus Stereotyping
9.0 Confrontation in TAoK/ Fishing for Testimony
9.1 The Politics of Friendship
9.2 Suryono’s Interogation
9.3 Confronting the Perpetrators in TLoS
10.0 Working towards the films’ climaxes
10.1 Experiencing Anwar’s Nightmare
10.2 Reaching the Emotional Climax of TAoK
10.3 Heightening viewers’ understanding of Adi’s Predicament
10.4 Reaching the emotional Climax of TLoS
11.0 Summary and Outlook
Research Objectives and Themes
This work explores how postmodern performative documentaries construct strategies for affective engagement to influence an audience's understanding of reality. By analyzing Joshua Oppenheimer’s "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence", the thesis investigates how investigative cinematic techniques are employed to bridge the gap between historical genocide narratives and individual emotional experience, addressing the research question of which strategies lead to specific reception potentials for the films' protagonists.
- Analysis of performative documentary modes and their blurring of fiction and reality.
- Examination of empathic engagement and its role in mediating documentary truth.
- Comparison of moral schemata and confrontation strategies used in perpetrator and victim-led narratives.
- Evaluation of narrative structures and their impact on audience affect and moral appraisal.
Excerpt from the Book
3.2 TAoK and TLoS classified as Performative Documentaries
The goal of performative documentaries is to avoid the conventional, diachronistic and causal, “here’s the problem and here is the solution”; unlike many of the previous modes, they do not contrast error with fact, misinformation with information (Natusch and Hawkins 2014, 21-23). Therefore performative films require a different form of engagement when it comes to gaining knowledge and getting access to the presented documentary reality. They show a small group of people and encourage viewers to ask how it would feel to undergo the same experience (Nichols 2010, 206). In so doing, the historical world is represented in evocative and expressive ways which remind us that the world we see is a partial fabrication and “more than the sum of visible evidence we derive from it” (Nichols 2010, ibid). What is significant is that performative films embrace the findings of previous modes (expository, participatory) because it seems that performative filmmakers have started to acknowledge that in order for a film to initiate change in the real world it needs to put forward arguments even if they are based on the subjective world view of the filmmaker. Bruzzi (2000) writes that documentary is a performative act and has to be seen as expressive; therefore it is to assume that especially political documentaries are not to be seen as arbitrary but as an “outcome of intentions” (133). Furthermore, Oppenheimer’s films are performative in the way that they combine, reformulate and subvert stylistic devices of a variety of previous modes. In the following I will illustrate that by pointing out the main investigative features. This in itself demands a cursory analysis.
Summary of Chapters
1.0 Introduction: Introduces the shift in documentary filmmaking towards "post-documentary" and "postmodern" styles, focusing on the need for new analytical perspectives for genocide documentaries.
2.0 Film Descriptions and Global Resonance: Provides a contextual overview of the two films, their reception, and their unique focus on the 1965 Indonesian genocide from perpetrator and victim perspectives.
3.0 The Taxonomy of Modes: Classifies the two films within Bill Nichols' taxonomy as predominantly performative, highlighting their rejection of conventional documentary didacticism.
4.0 Empathy, Identification and Appraisal in Films: Discusses the theoretical framework of viewer engagement, utilizing Murray Smith’s and Jens Eder’s models to define sympathy, empathy, and allegiance.
5.0 Developing Schemata for an Intended Reception: Analyzes how the films cue the viewer into specific moral outlooks and reception modes, particularly by subverting binary "good vs. evil" structures.
6.0 Getting Access to the Film Protagonists: Examines how the films provide mental access to protagonists, exploring the "roughened form" of the narratives and its effect on viewer immersion.
7.0 The films’ goals and conflicts: Details how the films guide the viewer's awareness of concealed remorse in the perpetrators and the underlying tension of the narrative conflict.
8.0 Preparing the ground for confrontations: Explores the cinematic strategies used to modulate viewer fear and provide context, contrasting the perpetrator-led "humanizing" scenes with victim-led confrontations.
9.0 Confrontation in TAoK/ Fishing for Testimony: Analyzes the specific confrontation scenes, focusing on how these interactions move the narrative toward the internal collapse of the protagonists' self-perceptions.
10.0 Working towards the films’ climaxes: Details the narrative and affective build-up to the films' respective emotional peaks, contrasting Anwar Congo's internal transformation with Adi Rukun's failure to find reconciliation.
11.0 Summary and Outlook: Synthesizes the findings, confirming that the performative and implicit nature of these films successfully generates empathy and critical re-evaluation of historical trauma.
Keywords
Documentary film, The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, performative mode, affective engagement, empathy, Indonesian genocide, genocide, film theory, narrative structure, mental perspective, moral appraisal, perpetrator studies, victim narratives
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central premise of the research?
The research explores how contemporary performative documentaries, specifically those about the 1965 Indonesian genocide, use investigative techniques to build affective relationships between viewers and subjects to mediate documentary truth.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The work covers film taxonomy, theories of empathy and character engagement, the structure of moral reception in postmodern cinema, and the specific strategies used in genocide-related documentaries.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to determine which strategies for affective engagement are employed by the films and how the figurative depiction of protagonists influences audience reception potentials.
Which theoretical approach is applied for the analysis?
The study utilizes a neo-formalist approach to film analysis, drawing significantly on Bill Nichols’ taxonomy of modes and Jens Eder’s model of character engagement.
What does the main body focus on?
It focuses on a comparative analysis of the two films, examining how they build "schemata" for the viewer, how they grant access to protagonists, how they structure confrontations, and how they arrive at their emotional climaxes.
Which concepts define the films' impact?
Key concepts include "affective engagement," "spatio-temporal attachment," "performative cinema," and "reception potentials."
How does the film reconcile the "human" side of perpetrators with their brutal past?
The analysis argues that the films use aesthetic and stylistic choices to show perpetrators in private or mundane contexts, thereby complicating the viewer's ability to maintain a strictly "detached" moral stance and encouraging a more nuanced "psycho-analytical" observation.
What distinguishes the confrontation strategies in the two films?
While "The Act of Killing" features confrontations between perpetrators and other perpetrators, "The Look of Silence" centers on confrontations between the victim and perpetrators, significantly altering the power dynamics and the resulting affective response of the viewer.
- Citar trabajo
- John Nicolas Helferich (Autor), 2016, Engaging Killer Performances. Strategies for Affective Engagement in Genocide Documentaries, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/340334
